Room to breathe

Thursday

Jun 6, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

Phew! After over a month of running around trying to cover all of the softball, baseball, golf, and track events all at the same time, the spring sports season has abruptly come to a close. I now have some room to breathe-and have enough space to write a column in the sports section for that matter.

Although I slept little, got sunburned and had to miss a couple of games, it was a really fun spring season and I will miss covering the school sports until fall rolls around.

Every spring sport is now over for Sleepy Eye teams except for golf. The Sleepy Eye Public trio of Lauren Laffen, Karah Remus and Emily Curtis will be competing in the Section 2A State Golf Meet next week. I definitely look forward to covering this last spring sports event and to cheer on the Sleepy Eye kids at the state meet. It would be awesome for one of them to win it all.

In my opinion, it was a pretty successful spring season for all of the Sleepy Eye sports teams. The Sleepy Eye Public boys baseball team did really well for coming off of a winless 2012 season. A team going from no wins last year to a playoff contender this year is a huge improvement, so major props to those guys.

The Sleepy Eye softball team also made it to the playoffs, which wasn’t any surprise. The Indians did well all season long and I really enjoyed watching them.

The St. Mary’s softball team advanced deep within the playoffs and had a terrific season overall, while the boys baseball team only had three losses this year and were able to last a few games in the Section 2A playoff bracket.

The Sleepy Eye Unified track team had a very successful season. The girls team dominated almost every event, and there were so many first place finishes. I haven’t really come to appreciate track and field until I watched this team. It’s pretty spectacular some of the things these athletes can do, such as the long jump. I am always amazed at how far people can jump in a single leap. I always thought to myself, if I tried that, I probably would barely make it to the sand from the line.

Finally, the two golf teams have had a pretty awesome season as well. The entire Sleepy Eye girls team as well as a handful of individuals from both schools made it to the section meet, which is pretty impressive. Not to mention the trio going to State. Can’t wait to see how they do!

All of these teams are obviously extremely talented and we should be proud of their accomplishments this season.

But now that I have some more free time, I have been spending it watching the French Open. It’s always fun to watch clay court action, because it’s completely different than any other court type. It’s unfortunate most TV coverage is on at four in the morning because they are playing in Paris. Nothing I can’t handle. Go Federer!